The present invention relates to a printing device provided with a cooling fan control device for controlling a cooling fan for cooling the printing device.
A conventional dot printer includes a cooling fan for cooling a printing head, various motors and a power supply unit, etc., so as to prevent an increase in temperature in the printer due to heat generation from these members. A control method of the cooling fan is such that the cooling fan starts its rotation at the same time power is supplied to the printer, and the rotation of the cooling fan is continued at a fixed speed until power is cut off. Alternatively, a driving motor for the cooling fan is rotated in cooperation with a carriage driving motor, so that the cooling fan is rotated only when the carriage is moved during the print operation. These conventional control methods are disclosed in Japanese Laid Open publication Nos. 60-18379 and 60-83873.
In the first control method where the cooling fan continues to be rotated while power is supplied to the printer, the cooling fan is rotated at the same speed even at idling, that is, under the condition where power is on, but neither the print operation nor the paper feed operation is conducted. As a result, there occurs a problem that noise of the cooling fan during idling is increased. On the other hand, in the second control method where the cooling fan is rotated only during the print operation, there occurs a problem that the temperature of the heat generating element in the printer such as the printing head cannot be decreased to a desired temperature by rotating the cooling fan only during the print operation when an amount of heat generated from the printing head or the other members is large prior to the end of the print operation.